9 September 2003

At least 16 police stations in Mpumalanga have piloted the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) as part of efforts to improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system.

Provincial safety and security spokesman Ntime Skhosana said the new technology is being piloted in areas such as Nelspruit, Secunda, Kabokweni, Vosman and Kwaggafontein.

The system uses a mobile device called Morph Touch that determines within seconds whether a person is a wanted criminal or not.

Almost 100 percent accurate, a suspect's fingerprints are scanned in on the spot and a message is sent to the AFIS mainframe in Pretoria, where it is matched with five million other sets of fingerprints on the database. Within about five seconds, the officer on the ground receives a response.

The system was introduced in 2000, and has cut down the time taken to match fingerprints from 40 days to 48 hours.

The technology makes a suspect's criminal history available to the investigating officers and to the justice department at a much faster pace, thus helping to speed up court processes.

The system was launched in 35 sites around the country in September 2002. In June 2003, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said this had enabled the police to double the rate of producing conviction reports, from 163 369 to 293 386 over a 35-day period, compared to the same period the previous year.

Source: BuaNews